Tag: Anna Gunn

  • ‘Sully’ soars and crashes at the same time

    ‘Sully’ soars and crashes at the same time

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    Tom Hanks in ‘Sully’

    True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.  – Arthur Ashe

    “Andrew Beckett” (based on real person Geoffrey Bowers)

    Jim Lovell

    “Carl Hanratty” (based on real person FBI Special Agent Joseph Shea)

    Captain Richard Phillips

    Walt Disney

    James B. Donovan

    That is a list of performances in feature films where Tom Hanks portrayed real people, or characters based on real people.  It is something he does extremely well (like just about any other performance from the two-time Oscar winner).  Now he is portraying an American hero, Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger in Sully, the new film from director Clint Eastwood.

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    Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart in ‘Sully’

    Unless you’ve been asleep since January 15, 2009, you should be familiar with the man this film is named after.  On that day he was piloting an Airbus A-320 from LaGuardia Airport in NYC.  Its destination was Charlotte, NC but roughly three minutes into flight, the aircraft suffered multiple bird strikes  Power was lost in both of the planes’  CFM56-5B4/P turbofan engines.  Less than three minutes later, Captain Sullenberger landed the plane on the Huston River.  All 155 people aboard survived.

    The movie is biographical in nature but focuses almost entirely on the flight and its aftermath.  It is based on Captain Sullenberger’s autobiography  Highest Duty which he wrote with Jeffrey Zaslow.  It is now on bookshelves with a new title, Sully.  We do see a representation of Captain Sullenberger’s early days in the cockpit when he was flying F-4 Phantoms for the U. S. Air Force.  We also discover he learned to fly before going off to the Air Force Academy (his Academy ring is visible in a number of shots).

    Captain Sullenberger and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) are hauled before a National Transportation Safety Board (Jamey Sheridan, Anna Gunn and Mike O’Malley.  They are portraying the real investigators but they have fictional character names).  They seem intent on blaming Captain Sullenberger for ditching the plane in the Hudson while he insists that there were no alternatives that wouldn’t result in a crash.  Captain Sullenberger sets out to prove that he and Jeff Skiles got it right.

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    Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart in an NTSB Investigation scene in ‘Sully’

    What the real Sully called a  “forced water-landing” are easily the best moments in the movie.  Eastwood uses flashbacks and dream sequences in a somewhat linear structure that does not enhance the telling of the story.  The acting is very good, with Hanks shining in the titular role.  Aaron Eckhart is as reliable as Yellowstone’s Old Faithful when it comes to giving a solid turn.  The talented Laura Linney portrays Lorraine Sullenberger, Sully’s wife but the storyline involving their relationship goes nowhere.

    The biggest controversy surrounding this film is the depiction of the NTSB investigation as being adversarial and attempting to place the blame on Captain Sullenberger for failing to try to return to LaGuardia, or attempting to land at nearby airports in New Jersey.  As the actual investigation report clearly states, and as the actual investigators point out, they were simply seeking to discover the truth about what had happened.  The movie claims a very different result regarding computer simulations done to determine if there was a chance that the plane could have made it to an airport.

    The story of Captain Sullenberger and Flight 1549 was dramatic enough without creation of controversy through poetic license.

  • ‘Equity’ provides a great return to its audience

    ‘Equity’ provides a great return to its audience

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    Anna Gunn in ‘Equity’

    “Wall Street is the world’s biggest casino” –  Edward O. Thorp

    Movies about Wall Street have littered the landscape in the wake of the crash of financial markets in 2009.  The Wolf of Wall Street, Money Monster, The Big Short and Arbitrage are just a few of the recent ones.  The common theme in all of them is how men running amok have hurt many investors while making gigantic profits for the fortunate few.

    Equity is different in several ways.  First, it is a look at the lives of three women trying to move up in the world of high finance, two inside an investment bank and one who is an assistant United States attorney. She’s just moved out of the prosecuting of drug dealers and into the world of white-collar crime.  Aside from being female-centric, Equity is also a terrific primer on the world of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) and what goes on behind the scenes before a company goes public.

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    Sarah Megan Thomas and Anna Gunn in ‘Equity’

    Anna Gunn is “Naomi Bishop” and she’s a very senior investment banker at a big firm.  Senior enough to consider herself in the running to replace her boss when he leaves in the near future.  She’s had a stellar career until her last IPO, Dynacorp ran into problems.  Now she has a chance to shine with an IPO for an internet security company, Cachet.  Cachet’s CEO, “Ed” (Samuel Roukin) likes her pitch but seems more interested in Naomi’s protege, “Erin Manning” (Sarah Megan Thomas).  Erin feels she is undervalued, under-compensated and is under the pressure of having just become pregnant.

    Naomi’s boyfriend, “Michael Connor” (James Purefoy) works on the other “side” of the investment bank.  His clients aren’t companies looking to go public; they are hedge fund managers and other industrial investors looking to profit from those IPOs.  The “Chinese Wall” is supposed to prevent people like Naomi and Michael from sharing information that would give an unfair advantage to his clients.  Naomi’s old friend “Samantha” (Alysia Reiner) is the aforementioned assistant U.S. attorney and she’s looking into one of Michael’s clients.  She wants to rekindle her relationship with Naomi in order to learn what Michael might have been up to.  As in any IPO, there is a potential problem that could cause the stock’s opening price on Wall Street to fall well below the expectations of the company going public.  If that happens, it will be a very serious black mark on Naomi’s resume and she will do almost anything to prevent that from occurring.

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    Alysia Reiner in ‘Equity’

    Director Meera Menon manages to take some complex concepts and present them in a way that allows even those who aren’t educated in matters of high finance to see what’s going on.  The film makes it clear that even in this day and age, women are still taken at face value in that world; evidenced by a joke Naomi tells about how her choice of dress might have caused a business deal to tank.  The three women central to this film are all powerful, intelligent and driven and seeing positive portrayals of such women is a welcome change.  If there is a problem with Equity it is that almost every single male character is flawed in more than just a minor way.  Then again since this is the world of Wall Street, perhaps this is simply realism in the experiences of the writers and people who advised them.  There are ethical lapses on both sides of the gender aisle in this film, but those of the men are far more egregious than those of the women.

    The three lead actresses are terrific.  The fact that Sarah Megan Thomas co-wrote the script may be part of the reason it seemed she was born for the role of Erin.  Anna Gunn proved her chops on “Breaking Bad” and they are on full display in this powerful performance.  Equity is worth more than one viewing.